"Our goal is to force 30 turnovers every game," E/LB head coach Steve Krause said. "We've created 40 turnovers against two teams already this year, but 50 is a lot. That's almost unheard of."

Since Lake Benton joined with Elkton six years ago, the Lady Elks had not played in a holiday tournament around the Marshall area. But Krause, who has coached for a total of 44 years, said he was excited to have that opportunity this year.

"It's the first time coming back to play here," he said. "We've been at the Milbank (S.D.) tournament most of the time. I like playing somebody different than we're used to, though. It's good to play against somebody you don't know very much about, although I did do a little scouting when we learned we were going to be in this tournament."

Due to the holidays and injuries, E/LB was missing four of its players at the Borch's tournament. But Krause was pleased with the overall performance of the team.

"I thought we played really well in the first half," Krause said. "For us to score 44 points, that's a lot for us. We didn't shoot very well in the second half and made some mistakes, but we had a lot of younger kids playing, too."

About 5 minutes into the first half, the Lady Elks started bearing down on the Indians defensively, allowing them to pull away offensively.

"We didn't really start pressing them until 4-5 minutes into the game," Krause said. "We kind of had to feel each other out a little bit. Then we picked up the pressure a little more. They didn't handle the pressure very well. I'm very happy with the way our team played defense."

E/LB took a 44-24 lead into the halftime break. With 11 minutes remaining in the second half, eighth-grader Callie Otkin drained a basket from behind the arc to give the Lady Elks a 55-38 edge.

At the 7:31 mark, with his team showing signs of fatigue, Krause took a timeout. Both teams were able to get to the free-throw line during a stretch of play. Sleepy Eye finished the contest going 12-for-19 at the line, while E-B went 14-for-33.

"I would say our free-throw shooting was a little below normal, but that happens sometimes when you play in a gym with no background," Krause said. "Over the years, we've not shot well when there was all that open space behind the baskets."

A rebound putback from Morgan Carmody gave the Lady Elks a 58-40 lead and a free throw from Gabby Kampmann and a field goal from Elizabeth Hegerfeld pushed the lead to 61-42 with just over 4 minutes left.

Kampmann added a pair of free throws and Kelsey Kinner a basket in the paint to close out the scoring for E/LB.

Kampmann led the Lady Elks with 16 points, nine steals, six assists and five rebounds while Carmody posted a double-double, grabbed a team-high 11 boards to go with 15 points. Elizabeth Hegerfeld dropped in 12 points, dished out four assists and swiped four steals, while Kinner hauled down six rebounds and Taylor Harming collected seven steals.

Josie Shieffert led the Indians with 22 points, while Claire Krumbach had 11.

E/LB is back in action at home against DeSmet (S.D.) on Dec. 6.

"DeSmet will be the best team we play all year," Krause said. "They're ranked third in (South Dakota) state right now."